Faculty Publications

Doce fábulas (2007) by Lluís Maria Todó as a Queer Aging Archive of Barcelona

Document Type

Book Chapter

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Cultural Representations of Queer Aging in Spain

First Page

182

Last Page

202

Abstract

In the short story collection, Doce fábulas [Twelve Fables] (2007), Lluís Maria Todó describes Barcelona as a space that facilitates community formation for aging gay men. While not every story features queer aging characters, a great number do, creating a queer archive (described by Jack Halberstam in The Queer Art of Failure, 2011) that illuminates the relatively invisible topic of the challenges and joys of the queer aging community in Barcelona. The collection touches on topics as varied as motivations for hooking up; sexual preferences including bondage, discipline, sadism, and masochism (BDSM), seducing heterosexual men, and age gaps in relationships; gay marriage; and queer spaces that foster community formation. Aging gay men in Todó's short stories struggle to make ends meet economically due to lack of familial connections, they experience desire and shame regarding their sexual drives and aging bodies, and they occasionally pay for sex or fall into the trope of the predatory older gay men. At the same time, aging gay characters enjoy the benefits of legal marriage and come together in various bars, clubs, and other spaces that have become hubs for the queer aging community. In this collection, Barcelona itself becomes a queer aging protagonist, as Todó describes how the city changes over the years to accommodate a queer aging community. Doce fábulas can be read as a challenge to Lee Edelman's No Future (2004), as the queer aging characters in this short story collection have found a way to envision a future outside of traditional, heteronormative familial constructions through community formation that often occurs in Barcelona's bars and nightclubs.

Department

Department of Languages and Literatures

Original Publication Date

6-1-2025

DOI of published version

10.4324/9781003475415-9

Link to Full Text

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